2015-10-30

Hey, remember #MathIsHard? It turns out Prentice was right: like so many housewives with access to huge amounts of money they didn't earn, Rachel Arab is unable to balance a chequebook. This is partly due to her incompetence and the incompetence of her fellow members of government. But it's also partly because she hates taxpayers and thinks the money is just a free gift from above. In short, her government is part stupid, part evil, and all bad for Alberta.

So let's look at some of thehighlowlights:
Remember the "mismanagement" of the Alberta PCs? The final year where Redford was turfed, Hancock lazed around, and Jim Dinning came in to save us all was a "operational surplus". It wasn't a real surplus, mind you, a topic we've covered before. Similarly, even in the "good news at the end" scenario the surplus you see won't actually be a surplus, and with the levels of debt being run up it could be 2030 before Alberta's back in the black again. That's a quarter century of progressives mismanaging the province's finances. Try to let that fact sink it a little bit.

a new Job Creation Incentive Program that will provide grants of up to $5,000 for each new full-time equivalent position created by eligible Alberta employers

Forget the fact that in the two years since Prentice the Alberta NDP will have raised spending -- already too high -- by a whopping $3.5 billion. Next year the interest servicing costs will hit $919M. That's almost as much as the entire Department of Energy ($990M), and it's literally tax dollars being pissed away with absolutely no benefit to the people of Alberta. Rachel Arab is sending almost a billion dollars to people like the Koch Brothers. Has anybody asked her vehement (and retarded) supporters how they feel about this?

Budget 2015 restores funding for post-secondary education that was cut in the March budget, and provides stable, predictable funding with planned increases in base operating funding of 2% per year. A two-year tuition freeze has been implemented to improve the accessibility and affordability of the post-secondary system.

High tuition is good. As a result, Rachel Arab is wasting the tax dollars provided by the hard work of private sector Albertans in order to fund a bunch of sodomy-loving useless degree holders. This is not good public policy.

Healthcare spending is out of control. Constant increases are not "sustainable" to use the NDP's favourite buzzword when it comes to private industry. At some point, hollow excuses like "growing population" (which under the NDP may not longer even be true) have to be abandoned. Public expenditure on healthcare at some point has to stop increasing. Ideally, of course, it should fall to zero because we should not have public healthcare. Once that happens, market pressures will cause healthcare to become like any other good: generally going down in real cost but occasionally increasing if specific external influences come into play. Also, let's remember that "front line personnel" are unionized nurses. Rachel Arab's husband is their union rep. This is collusion, and if Lou and Rachel Arab were private businessmen in America with this budget they'd be in jail for a RICO violation.

Budget 2015 provides funding for projected enrollment growth of 1.5% in 2015, and reverses a 3% ($78 million) reduction to school boards included in the March budget.

There's only one group with more clueless women wasting tax dollars than Rachel Arab's cabinet: and that's local public school boards. It's a nice little scam they have going: they beg for more money from the NDP, then they mismanage the money, then they tell the public the NDP didn't give them enough so the NDP gives them more. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Budget 2015 also includes new funding, beginning in 2016-17, to address classroom complexity and support inclusive education, phase-in a targeted school nutrition program and reduce school fees.

Lower oil prices and their impact on the provincial economy will continue to affect government revenue. Even with the tax changes approved in June and new revenue initiatives included in this budget, 2015-16 revenue will only be about $400 million higher than anticipated in the March budget.

Spoiler Alert: it won't even be that much higher. As a small example, and by small I mean not small, Cenovus has slashed jobs. Devon Energy cut 200 jobs, and Shell cancelled the Carmon Creek oilsands project. Part of this is low oil prices, but most of it is companies getting the fuck out of dodge with the extremist anti-corporation morons of Rachel Arab's government being in charge. When the option of paying extra taxes to meet Lunch Lady Premier's horrible spending spree or cutting ties to Alberta and running away, "the rich" whom the NDP and their retarded supporters hate so much pick the latter option every single time. So keep your eyes peeled.

Liquor mark-ups increase 5%, effective October 28, and the mark-up structure is being refined to promote made-in-Alberta products.

Besides the fact that Rachel Arab's government is hiking her government's cut of something that they shouldn't have any role in whatsoever (Alberta still owns the warehousing side of liquor sales, which is how they can always increase prices within 24 hours of making these announcements), the fact that there's some anti-free-trade protectionism included in the move shows exactly how the Alberta NDP act and think just like third rate banana republics.

The government is committed to maintaining a prudent level of debt even as the budget is used as a "shock absorber" for the provincial economy

The "shock" the economy is being forced to absorb is Rachel Arab's disgustingly extremist NDP government and the huge levels of public sector debt they are racking up as they funnel more and more money into their corrupt public union friends.

The Capital Plan is designed to put people to work, get Alberta’s economy moving and upgrade or expand existing infrastructure. Following on the advice of former Bank of Canada governor and leading economist David Dodge, the government is taking a counter cyclical approach to capital spending, creating jobs and promoting long-term economic growth by investing in infrastructure when it is needed most.

Aboriginal Relations. Consolidated expense is budgeted at $197 million in 2015-16 (excluding flood recovery initiatives). This budget includes $128 million for the First Nations Development Fund and $43 million for First Nations and Métis Relations. There is $1 million (increasing to $3 million per year beginning in 2016-17) to help build a new relationship with Indigenous
peoples and support initiatives in response to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Red Indians claim to be independent nations, so why do Albertans need to fund their cultural delusions?

The next time cowardly asshole Don Iveson tries claiming municipalities are given the short-stick from the province, quote this piece of information at him.

Total public sector compensation costs of about $25 billion are budgeted in 2015-16, or one-half of total consolidated expense. Total compensation costs are expected to grow by about 2.5% per year over the following two years.

And then stop, right? ALL PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS PROVIDE NEGATIVE ECONOMIC VALUE, so the faster they get paid less, the better off all Albertans are.

At the end of the day, Budget 2015 is a complete disaster. The Alberta NDP are completely clueless. For being huge fans of big government, they show a remarkable lack of intellectual rigour when it comes to such important topics like how it actually works: how it raises money, what happens when it spends money, and how it can poorly incentivize a populace. They are blowing public dollars on a wide variety of dubious or flat-out wrong initiatives (including $178M for money on the homeless, which won't help the existing homeless who are mostly going to just take the dole and ruin their lives even further, and bring more of their unwanted lot into our cities) because they have a completely flawed view of what their role in the economy and society truly is.

We see now how accurate I was in February when I said that Prentice had a rare chance to shrink government. He didn't, the NDP accused him of shrinking it (because they are leftists, remember, they're always liars) and were able to point to all the problems caused by him growing government as emblematic of his vicious cost-cutting. His failure has caused the NDP to ruin everything that made Alberta great to begin with.

It's time to fight back. The Alberta NDP have to be stopped. Nothing is too extreme. From the Premier who should be making sandwiches in the kitchen to the retarded Mongoloid who is Marie Renaud, they all deserve it.

So let's break it down: let's go through the entire report's recommendations and see which ones -- if any -- are worth the trouble. While we're here let's keep two salient points in mind, which will be important considerations to evaluate the individual calls to action

Are any actual Indian groups required to do anything? Or are they always the recipient of somebody else's largess?

Is there largess? Specifically, how much money will Canadian taxpayers need to spend to implement this report?

So here we go, and we'll start with their What We Have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation document. Try not to laugh at the embossed background with a feather, by the way, you totally need to pace yourself. First thing you'll notice is now we know where Willie Littlechild ended up. For those who don't remember, Littlechild was the Alberta MP who gained a brief bit of fame when he was taken to court for his pro-GST vote after receiving anti-GST petitions. You may also notice that it describes him as "Chief Wilton Littlechild". Willie Littlechild is not a real Chief. He's an honourary cheif in Hobemma, but it's like an honorary degree from a university. It's like Wayne Gretzky signing "Dr. Wayne Gretzky" when he gives somebody his autograph. It's a hilarious joke, and an indication that the TRC is going to be nothing but lies By the time we get to the actual principles, we've already gone off the deep end.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society.

The UN Declaration comes up a lot, so it's important to know early how much of a giant crock of shit it is. There's no other way to describe it. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a useless document that should be rightfully ignored. You literally cannot justify going to this source material to justify a single of the action items found later in the report. For one thing, the report entirely classifies the population of countries into two distinct groups: "Indigenous peoples" and "everybody else". For one thing, there's been a decent amount of intermixing between those two groups, so there isn't exactly a neat divide between them. For another, this creates an odd hierarchy where the first people on a piece of land imbue special rights to all of their kin on said land no matter what subsequent action takes place. Finally, it curiously doesn't apply to all pieces of land. Nobody is saying that the Dniepr Balts should have special rights in Ukraine, or that the Chwezi should be paid money from the Bito or other later groups to settle in Uganda. No, this seems to be a special declaration only to the earliest inhabitants of land that were later colonized by Great Britain. Okay, onto Principle #2:

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, as the original peoples of this country and as self-determining peoples, have Treaty, constitutional, and human rights that must be recognized and respected.

The reference to treaty rights is another giant red flag. As Cory Morgan has noted, the treaties apply to both parties, and so why isn't the treaty rights of white Canadians respected? The Red Indian agreed to remain on the reservation and not foster dissent against Her Majesty or her government. Indeed, they agreed to be left out of the voting process entirely: if they are indeed "First Nations" to be "nation-to-nation" dealing with Ottawa (more on that later) then why should they be voting in Canadian elections? Again more on this later but its important to see why the principles are inconsistent and one-sided. You'll see lots of this: nothing at all could possibly be the Indians' fault.

Reconciliation is a process of healing of relationships that requires public truth sharing, apology, and commemoration that acknowledge and redress past harms.

We've already seen with the Willie Littlechild thing that "truth sharing" is going to be very very very untruthful and selective process. As for apology, Steven Harper did that back in 2006 (he shouldn't have) since "acknowledging and redressing" past harms is only applicable if there are past harms. And there aren't. By Principle #4, the report has already gone off the deep end.

Reconciliation requires constructive action on addressing the ongoing legacies of colonialism that have had destructive impacts on Aboriginal peoples’ education, cultures and languages, health, child welfare, the administration of justice, and economic opportunities and prosperity.

"Ongoing legacies of colonialism" include such things as the existence of the Supreme Court (which is violating centuries of jurisprudential tradition by elevating the recommendations of this group to the status of high law), freeways, the Trent–Severn Waterway, and poutine. I'm not sure which of these is said to have a "destructive impact" on the education or healthcare of the Red Indian, though if it endorses the action items in the TRC report the Supreme Court may well qualify. In fact, reading through Principle #4 the ongoing destructive impact on Indians for all topics (particularlly health, child welfare, and economic opportunities) is mostly caused by the Indians themselves. Ezra had fun with some of the provisions of Principle #5, but to my mind the giant issue is that it mentions outcomes which is absolutely horrible.

Reconciliation must create a more equitable and inclusive society by closing the gaps in social, health, and economic outcomes that exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

Again, why aren't Red Indians included in this list. They are quite literally treaty people, they have status cards and everything. Why don't they have a responsibility for establishing and maintaining mutually respectful relationships? After all, they are part of the relationship. Typically, especially in today's namby pamby world, a relationship is a "building partnership" and even Ask Abby can tell you what happens when the responsibility to establish and maintain mutual respect is only afforded to one party.

The perspectives and understandings of Aboriginal Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers of the ethics, concepts, and practices of reconciliation are vital to long-term reconciliation.

One of the key problems with native culture is frankly going to be the ageist attitudes they have to "elders". Older people may be on balance wiser than the rest, but an institutional reliance on a specific subgroup cannot be a recipie for good public policy. It especially seems a bad fit when a culture fetishizing youth has to 'reconcile' with a culture fetishizing old age. As the graphic notes as well, this seems to only apply to Indian elders. Elders in the white community down the road who may have traditional views on subjects aren't a factor to be considered when "reconciling", apparently.

Supporting Aboriginal peoples’ cultural revitalization and integrating Indigenous knowledge systems, oral histories, laws, protocols, and connections to the land into the reconciliation process are essential.

With Principle #8, we see our first mention of "oral histories". "Oral histories", for those who are unaware, is the idea that since the evil white man had invented writing (along with, well, pretty much everything) while the Red Indian had not, it's "unfair" to expect that the records from the advanced civilization are given a higher priority from the less advanced one. It's completely nonsensical and paradoxical, and as I tweeted to left-wing Canadian artist Kinnie Starr if we accept its pretense than unverifiable claims get elevated above documentary evidence, a complete rejection of the entire philosophy of rationalism. Of course, I might make money suing her into poverty thanks to my family's "oral history"

But Principle #8 goes even further than that. It says that we need to "integrate" the Red Indian's knowledge systems (which were only a few short millenia away from figuring out bronze!) along with those oral histories, their laws, protocols, and connections to the land. It's a good time to review that the "connections to the land" is a bunch of blatant bullshitting. The Red Indian, partly due to their spiritual belief that slain wildlife got reincarnated, were actually brutal environmental stewards whenever they got into large enough numbers to impact their environment. That they by and large didn't get into large enough numbers speaks to their lack of technology and a culture that didn't strive to innovate and discover, not to any sort of special ability to commune with the Great Crow. The real Red Indians clear cut, overhunted, deforested, and manipulated the environment with the best of them...the only thing keeping the land from en masse reflecting this is that they weren't the best of them! We are almost done kids, so bear with me. The comedy builds near the end, Principle #9 is that...

Reconciliation requires political will, joint leadership, trust building, accountability, and transparency, as well as a substantial investment of resources.

"Political will" is one thing, but "joint leadership" would be something totally new. The Red Indian is completely incapable of any "joint" leadership. Whenever they talk "joint leadership" what they mean is white Canada pays us money and we blow it on cronyism. Joint leadership is a nice phrase they get to bandy about, though: it implies their beloved "state-to-state" treatment, operating under the nice illusion that Indian Reserves are actual nations rather than little municipal fiefdoms where the elites live large off an economy almost 100% funded by free money from hardworking Canadian taxpayers.
With the above graphic in mind, "accountability" is a laughable one-way street as well. Who are Indian bands accountable to? Nobody. As you'll see, though, implementing the TRC recommendations won't require Indians to do actually anything, so I guess they can throw "accountability" in there for free. They do the same for "transparency", seeing how they expect white governments to do all the heavy lifting, and they are transparent to begin with. Which means, of course, "trust building" is itself a completely empty exercise. Where have Indians, who have been engaged in en masse lying about residential schools, been forced to do better at making themselves trustworthy? Canadians rightfully don't trust lazy shiftless Indians, and nothing in the TRC documents will change that. Finally we get the purest form of comedy with Principle #10. This is where it just admits that it needs to spread its lies and deceits.

Reconciliation requires sustained public education and dialogue, including youth engagement, about the history and legacy of residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal rights, as well as the historical and contemporary contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian society.

The one thing you notice is that "dialogue" is the furthest from the minds of a TRC-supporter.

.@deBeauxOs1 Delusion is equating "high risk tuberculosis group having a high tuberculosis death rate" with "genocide".

They don't want "dialogue", they just want their lies (that residential schools were dens of racially based rape and murder) heard, and any dissenting voices quited up. This is why they want very one-sided notions of history pushed into the curriculum. By saying the truth: that the Red Indian was an economically and culturally backwards people, and that under the terms of the treaties Canada was obliged to educate them in a world 6,000 years ahead of them, and did so with limited resources to the best of their ability, and that the end result failed because the Red Indian on balance just can't learn to be civilized (as all the missing and murdered women at their hands goes to show). The "including youth engagement" is a nice touch. The "get to them early while their tiny brains haven't got functioning bullshit detectors" mindset has been how the left has won when it comes to faggots, so it's not too shocking that they're interested in reproducing [no pun intended... -ed] that success when it comes to the latest Big Lie. They want to talk about the "history and legacy" of residential schools (by only covering a sliver of the history, and none of the legacy: namely that Red Indians are able to more or less write in English), but they're really big on the "treaties". Cory Morgan in Calgary has done quite a bit on the treaties which I'll be consulting shamelessly aping over the next couple thousand words. The first thing of note is that Canada has satisfied the treaty requirements by a country mile -- even factoring in inflation and ridiculous bullshit like equating a "medicine bag" with "free universal healthcare" (and for those keeping track, that's white healthcare, not Indian healthcare which would basically be rubbing dandelions on a wound while smoking a pipe and praying to the Great Crow). Meanwhile, the Indians have routinely violated the treaties by fostering dissent against the Canadian (Federal) Government and leaving the reserves which they aren't ever supposed to do. You can bet that -- like all the benefits of education -- this aspect of the treaties won't be part of the "history and legacy" that gets taught in schools so they can "include youth engagement" that tells uppity Indians to move back onto the reservation where they belong (according to these precious treaties, of course). Finally, they hilariously want "historical and contemporary contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian society" to be taught in schools. "But kids are in school for only 12 years! How can we fit this 8 minutes of discussion in, we're packed full!" Outside of the War of 1812, historical "contributions of Aboriginal peoples" are pretty much limited to Louis Riel violently violating the treaties (to which he was rightfully put to death), and that guy who hung around David Thompson. Modern contributions of Aboriginal people are limited to Graham Greene and Lorne Cardinal, and Susan Aglukark if you really think there's musical talent in imitating a dying cat. There, Principle #10 is fulfilled. Just cut-and-paste that sentence and go nuts. With that, it's time to move past the principles and onto the meat-and-potatoes of the "Truth and Reconciliation" Commission: the Calls to Action. I'll warn you right now: every "call to action" is a bad idea and should never happen. None of them are justifiable. With that warning, let's dig in. Okay, you may have to do a small action to read more...namely, click the "read more" below. After all, I'm already 2400 words in and there's a lot of ground to cover. If you're reading this on the main page, you ain't done yet! If you are on this post itself, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Nevermind. Time to tackle the stupid recommendations.